Salem
by zzetta13
Summary: This story work is a continuation of the Firefly Mythology, a story created that I hope readers will find interesting and may even produce questions. Taking place sometime after the BDM, there may be a multitude of switcharoos and twists and turns, some that I don't even know are coming. OC and the regular folk of the show abound, thanks, Z
1. Chapter 1

_**Salem**_

"_**Counting Backwards"**_

Author's note: _Hello Firefly fic readers, this is the first chapter of my new work entitled "__**Salem**__". It will be an ongoing series that explores the adventures of Serenity's crew after the BDM, and I hope to integrate the story arc with what Zack Whedon produces in the "Leaves on the Wind" comics. _

_**Salem**__ is a code word being used by a resurgence of the UIM (Underground Independence Movement) and can be used in combinations such as, Salem-1, 3 or 2, or Salem-Red, Green, or Blue. All are used to confound the Alliance, keep them guessing. There can be other definitions of the code word as well._

_This Chapter, __**Counting Backwards**__, is the introduction of a UA Firefly story work and will attempt to cover new territory. New OC will flow through the chapters (ie…Courtney Cavish), and new situations. I hope you continue to check in to see what happens next. My thanks as always, Z_.

_******* "I Never Make It Past Three" *******_

"Now Miss Tam if you will, start counting backward for me, start with six then count down to zero…."

"Yes Dr. Mathias," the young girl said.

River Tam had had many sessions with Doctor Mathias, many talks with him as she lay on a small cot or in a reclined chair. However this session was different. She didn't feel as tranquil, as pleasant of ease as she had those other times, she felt more nervous.

At this instant she wished her big brother, Simon, could be with her, to give her comfort, to tell her that everything would be alright. But Simon seemed a galaxy away. She couldn't reach out and touch him; she couldn't say that she was scared or frightened this time with the Doctor, that things didn't feel the same.

She was looking up into a bright overhead light, she had to…..she had no choice. Her head had been bound this time, secured to the cold, clammy headrest of a chair that had her feel that something bad was going to happen, over than good. And her arms were tethered too, why?

Dr. Mathias said that this wouldn't hurt, that no harm would come to her, but why did they have her strapped down?

There were others that she knew at this place, girls and boys, some a little older, and some a bit younger, but all were smart and mostly friends of hers. Then there were the friends that had changed. People that she knew that once wore smiles, but now only had the look of sorrow upon their faces. She wondered what had happened to them.

Dr. Mathias had told her that they'd received bad news from home, which might be the reason they looked so disturbed, and she understood. She would feel bad too if something had happened to her mother or father, but especially her brother.

Anyway, she tried to sooth them and let them know that everything would be Okay, but they seemed distant and appalling. She still worried about them but she let them be, let them go unto their own destinies.

There was one friend though that she did care more about, Courtney Cavish. Courtney was a pretty blonde-headed girl, a little older than herself. And Courtney had begun to change also…maybe not as bad as some of the others, but it was still noticeable. She had meant to talk with her friend about her troubles whenever a ship arrived and took Courtney away. River was sad, but felt a little better whenever Doc Mathias told her that they were taking the girl to a better place. That was the last she'd seen of her friend.

"Relax Miss Tam, and begin counting for me now please," the Doctor's voice was calm and soothing.

"Six, five, four, three…." And then there was….DARKNESS.

_******* The Foreboding Lab *******_

River heard screams, horrible shouts of pain and torture, the trouble was, she didn't know if they were real or just dreams she was having. She felt herself awake and floating, above the chair, above the room, but still confined within its horrid chambers.

She noticed men and women working on a patient below her, a girl. The Doctor and his assistants were doing things to her and the girl was squirming, moving as though she felt uncomfortable. However restraints held her down, held her from making any attempt to get away. She seemed to be half asleep, or sedated, whichever her condition, and they were placing needles into her skin, into her body. There were tubes running here and there, some with green fluid, some with red, and some with blue. What was contained with that fluid, River didn't know, but the color was pretty.

The Doctor kept looking back at a monitor, with lines going up and down and yellow lights flashing, then he would turn back and examine the girl further.

River then realized that the patient was her. She turned then and noticed that there was another person in the room, a man, a military type of individual, arms folded across his chest as he reviewed what was going on. The Doctor would look at him too, and would speak, however his words were muddled and she did not understand them. The officer, in his neatly pressed uniform pointed, and Doctor Mathias removed his surgical mask.

"I said that we may have lost Courtney, but this girl seems a better candidate. Her emotional restraints could be altered to a point where she could become a weapon well worth the price of continued research."

The Officer, the Doctor was speaking to, showed little emotion, only a nod of his head to show that he understood and a point to the patient to show that the operation should continue

With the surgical mask remaining off, Dr. Mathias began to speak again.

"With the alteration of the amygdala, River Tam may set us way ahead of any conflict that the _Governing Body_ may face in the future. Fact is, we have several subjects here that are compatible. Why stop with the enhancement of one soldier when the military can have an army of dozens, maybe hundreds," he paused, "…still it will take more than one operation to see that the girl reaches full potential, but all we need is time, and a little funding."

Mathias looked at the officer and the military man finally spoke…

"I'll see to it that Parliament writes you a check Doctor, do continue your work. However the tax rolls are mainly being used at this time to experiment with the new PAX control system. If that works we won't need an army of zombies to restrict the population, the air they breathe will do the job for us." The commander stopped, but then added….

"Remember all of this research is confidential, no word to anyone. Should it leak out that we are working with brain modification and that my _**Bosses**_ are involved, then I assure you Dr. Mathias that that may be a day that you wished you'd stayed home. Am I making myself clear?"

"Very."

END PART 1


	2. Chapter 2

_**Salem 2**_

"_**Contingency Plan- A History of the Unification War"**_

What is it when a thing is specified that it is special, different or unique? Well oftentimes it is the data that supplies the Intel. Information which leads a certain individual (or a certain group of people), to develop a conclusion. Data gathered by sight, sound, numbers…or plotted graph.

Nothing it determined without numbers, information that shows what is possible, or what is not (or what may be achieved with a little extra effort).

The POWERS of the cosmos, of course, run the universe in such manner. If the numbers don't add up to be feasible (that is, if the _cost vs commitment data_ shows that something is not worth the effort), then any questionable project brought to their attention may be dropped in view of an alternative.

Still, even with this knowledge it is not the cure-all to every means. With the _data-banks _running 24-7, there remain things to be tested, things that will never be known unless they are driven through the process of trial and error. That's just the way it is.

Success is a venture that if not attempted will never be realized, and as the old saying goes, _nothing ventured-nothing gained_. However success cost money, as does failure, and even an entity as seemingly of endless wealth such as Parliament, does not gamble without some sort of promise for a return on its due.

The Unification War (as seen) was conducted in such a manner. The Allied Government was not about to launch a full scale war without assurances that the outcome would prove less than favorable. The data showed that a war was winnable, that the desired ending was positive, however at what cost?

At this point in human history, some of the outlying worlds, both rim and border, were looking to secede from the central planets, start their own government. An independent movement was gathering strength, momentum. Still...what remained the question, was the core ready for a war? Were the rich and wealthy of society ready to deliver their sons and daughters to such a commitment….that was an idea Parliament was straining with?

War could become lengthy and costly, and were the privileged ready to be involved in such a plan? There were alternatives, delays and postponements could be had until Parliament was ready, but war, as it was known, was coming, it was inevitable.

There were several schools of distinction which had been started by this time, schools of "Developed Talents", operations being explored under the guise of Academies for the Gifted. In actuality these were military experimentation venues, areas of research and development for new weapons and new ideas of deployment that were under consideration.

Assassins and Operatives, they were a part of this new experimentation, weapons the like of which no one had ever witnessed, some whom could abolish a troop of fifty men, maybe a hundred. These were high on the list of "_Tools_" coming out of the academy, weapons that could be used to delay a war, or even sidetrack its outcome.

Even with that, not everything worth the risk can guaranteed success, there are always percentages (how dull would the universe be if everyone knew everything, wouldn't we all be gods then?). However most of the time those percentages are worth the gamble, and if the endeavor worked out for the better, then said data and percentages proved right, if they did not, then there was always a backup plan, a contingency.

From the Author: Digging deeper into the _Academy of the Gifted_, the school were River Tam was enrolled and was hoping to become more challenged with higher-learning. This idea is an attempt to explore that whole situation, and the reasons which led River to be the way she was. Also we may get insight as to what led Simon to do the things he did (be the Big Brother).

With this chapter I am looking to tunnel really deep into the Firefly world, and, in some soon to be posted chapter, expand the story arc to the present day, beyond the BDM. This beginning is just the offering of a little background, _AU_ of my own making of course, conjecture to be sure, however I hope that it proves interesting….my thanks again for your continued following, Z.

_******* Grub for the Blue Jays *******_

There had been a study commissioned back on Earth (old Earth that Was), research conducted on our home planet, and the title at the top of the folder read "_Grub for the Blue Jays"_. It was an experiment, a test, a trial to see which species of birds leaned faster than others, not that Blue Jays had better brains than their cousins; only it was meant to discover what kind of bird may learn more quickly.

Grub-worms were introduced out of a hole in a structure that had been simulated to look like a tree. The grub were color-coded, with one being the color of red, which consisted of the tastier, safer kind of treat, while the blue was more sour and there was a bit of a shock delivered to the winged animal as it retrieved the sky colored offering.

Starting in the morning, the conductor of the experiment had learned, by that afternoon, that it didn't matter which species of bird gathered to eat the meal, it didn't matter the type, what was learned that it was the individual, the creature itself which made the difference. The research discovered that no single set of birds leaned faster or more quickly than that of their brothers, and that it was a matter of the uniqueness of the lone creature itself which proved its keener sense of intellect. There was no Intel that described that feathers of the same order, were any different or smarter than those who few along with them in the same sky, as such was shown. There was a range of average intellect, which most creatures possessed (as well as most humans), and then there was the distinguishable categories, the sub-average the above average, the genius, and at the top, the superior.

_Now, moving forward a great distance into the future..._

Such was the testing being conducted on River Tam. Not that River wasn't smart, she was a genius, actually over that, superior or above. Still it had not been found the boundary of her limitation. This was a curiosity to Dr. Mathias.

River had started out as a student, and now found herself in danger of becoming something else.

She had let her brother know that they were being tortured, that the school wasn't really a school, but actually a facility run by the Government for the experimentation of new weaponry.

Things were being done to them, things that hurt, that caused pain, that the academy was actually a place of cruelty. But how could she let her brother know without alerting the staff?

Letters, letters back to Simon would be the way to go. She could write them in a confusing manner, a way of showing that something wasn't right, things did not add-up, did not make sense. Simon was smart, he'd tested in the genius range of every class he took, he would figure it out, and then he would tell their parents. They would come after that, come and get her out, out of this chamber of horrors, and too exposed her tormentors, expose them for whom they really were.

River Tam was a smart girl, testing superior in her range to even genius, however she was still naive, and did not understand that she could be so wrong.

END CHAP 2


	3. Chapter 3

_**Salem 3**_

"_**Rogue Wash: A Firefly Story"**_

Author's note: This tale (chapter 3) explores the idea of what it would have been like if, after the BDM it was found that Hoban Wash had remained alive (and also the possibility that his body had been discover & recovered by a still living Shepherd Book ?)

Yepper, I am a person…..founded in the belief that Shepherd Book and Hoban Wash did not parish after the BDM. That they only enter into a parallel state, a life that still functioned within the same realm of the Joss Whedon universe.

To explain further, I am the kind of person that understands that science and religion can co-exist on the same plane, within the same dimension, opposite sides of the same coin if you will. While one preaches fact…(with a side order of conjecture), the other speaks of belief, coupled with the hard-core of the spiritual (doesn't that seem like almost the same thing?)

Anyway, this work has, more or less taken on the regard of the spiritual, the faithful. Call it the "_Faithful Complex_" if you will, or whatever you want, but imo there IS a _**Supreme Entity**_, a presents that casts glances over a portion of what has been created, and said _**Entity**_ is not about to let their creation meet its falter.

_**Now on to the story…..**_

Prologue: Finding out that he had a wife, the love of his life, and is the father of a new baby girl, Hoban Wash had begun to question his soul.

After some time spent aboard Serenity he became confusion about _who_ he really was (?)

As a result, the former pilot of Serenity had begun partaking in somewhat of the sauce that was being transported aboard the Firefly class vessel. He knows that sometimes "Serenity" transports shipments of illicit alcohol out to the rim and border regions, and this had become a problem for him. He had indulged a bit too much into the wine, with the hopes that it will help him remember; remember the good times and the good things that happened from his former life, or help him to forget the bad. Wash had begun to reminisce about his former life.

_****** Just a detailed note: for readers who are experiencing this as their first story arc of mine, may I suggest that you try reading "The Way of Serenity" prior to this, to help this idea make more sense. And too, as always, my thanks to you for reading, Z******_

_******* Guts-Skyplex *******_

He stood there on a crowded thoroughfare…People passing him by as if he weren't even there (so busy in their own little worlds that they paid him little heed or mind).

He looked down at the shirt he were wearing, a brightly colored patter of pastel flowers and aqua design that gave him the appearance of being a cheery sort of fellow, a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, far be it from the truth.

Wash was not in a cheery mood, nor was he even in a mood that could be considered pleasant. He was drunk, or rather had been, and coming out of the final stages of being so he remained ill prepared for what next may come his way. He did consider the idea that HE was the problem, and that his own indulgences had caused him to be expelled from Serenity. Malcolm Reynolds had ordered him off of the ship when he had nearly crashed them into a moon, and even River hadn't seen it coming.

Wash had become a man plagued with guilt, haunted by doubt…..and he had lost confidence in who he was, had lost his sense of identity. And as so, he had begun to drink. To take a journey down a path where he knew he was destined for trouble.

Washing away his anxiety about his inability to remember things was easy at first. A single bottle missing from the illicit stash of contraband Serenity was transporting for some border-world Barron helped him to forget that he couldn't remember, ironically speaking. And how could their client, owner of the illicit cargo,ever know that there was one idem missing from his shipment?

In a universe so vast, so expansive, who then would question if a single part their cargo had become misplaced?

Even on the ship's manifest, Malcolm Reynolds was not disturbed if he found that a single item was missing from the ship's log, it wasn't rocket science that it could have been misplaced. If something turned up missing, then the Captain, of said vessel, just listed the piece of missing cargo, "lost in transmission". It was easy to remove one bottle of the hard stuff.

(_Captains' of smuggling transport ships often were aware that their crews were curious about what was being transported, and knew that often their team cracked open crates or boxes to find out what was inside)_.

However, as a question, what was most feared by said vessels of thieves and pirates (the person responsible for delivering said goods), was that, if the order of missing loot became extensive, then there was a problem.

Malcolm Reynolds had become aware that some of the liquor he was to deliver on his quests, had turned up "_not-there_", moreover, he had suspected Jayne as the culprit. Now, he had become quite disturbed whenever he'd become aware that there were two, three, or even more of the bottles missing from his manifest list.

Wash spent so much of his time pulling shift on Serenity's bridge alone (while Zoe, cared for their new baby girl down in the bunk), that it gave him plenty of time to think. And what happens when a person has too much time to think, well they begin to question. Wash began to question the reality of who he was, and taking swigs from a bottle only enhanced his sense of the philosophical.

He had a daughter; sure, that's what he'd been told, but was she real? Was any of this real?

Wash had returned to Serenity one fateful night on Persephone (see Way of Serenity), and there were still questions that remained about himself. Had he died, and then somehow been miraculously resurrected, or was this all a dream?

The trouble with that was that he did remember dying, well, not actually the dying part, but the extreme pain, and then nothing, what came after was sketchy. He remembered waking up from a state of suspended animation (cryo sleep), and as a result had retained a faint idea of _who_ he really was before his refrigeration. Bits and pieces of an alternate existence aboard a ship among people that he loved. These he could recall, but some events were so abstract that his idea was such that it could have all been a dream.

Hoban Wash had become a man confused, and as such he began to drink.

At first it was one bottle, then two bottles, then three. Hoban Washburn was a man struggling with reality. And now here, on the streets of "Backwash", the gutter part of Sky-Plex, there was only one thing he was sure of, and that was where he could find his next bottle.

_**Gutter Wash**_

"So, you done feeling pity for yourself?"

Hoban Wash looked up into the face of a pretty girl, someone maybe between the ages of River and Kaylee, and he was even shocked that someone had noticed him.

"Buy me my next bottle of booze and I'll tell ya," the former Firefly pilot answered with a smirky little grin.

"How about you sip your next drink out of that gutterwash you're standing in," she said, a mite irritated with his answer. "Abandoning your wife and child (?). I should take you into one of these back alleys and end your suffering, and theirs."

Wash looked at the young lady. She was accompanied by an older gentleman standing behind her.

"Sounds like a good proposal, let's drink on it."

The woman gave him a look of disgust.

"I agree that it sounds like a good idea, but I'm not here to do that, I'm here to bring you back," she said, "Serenity has gotten herself in a mite of trouble and needs someone with knowledge and history of the craft, and its personnel. You are the one individual that can fly that vessel like a leaf on the wind. So even though I argued the point, against my vote I was sent out here to find you."

Wash viewed this young lady with a curious eye. She was dressed almost as a soldier would be dressed, rugged khaki colored pants, with deep, big pockets such that could be filled with ammo, and then there was a fine looking piece of weaponry in a holster strapped to her thigh. The shirt that she was wearing was a front button-up and was a little darker than her pants, however if was mostly covered by the darker brown jacket she was sporting. She reminded him of a throw-back to the Independence War, talk about one losing their memory, didn't she know the war was over, and their side had lost?

"Well therein lays the problem," Wash replied to her statement, "See I don't have a History with Serenity, and if I did, I don't remember. So, if you're attempting to use philosophy to lure me back, well may I suggest to you that you're beating a dead horse. What may lie in my past has been locked within my brain and the vault which holds my memory's, well somewhere I've lost the key."

She looked at him, certainly a smart fellow, and with a quick wit…..she liked him already, but she couldn't save him. She had to convince him to save himself.

"I would beg to differ that a certain preacher-man would argue the point," she said. "You didn't give yourself enough time to remember. Parts of your brain remain in freeze. Cryo is a delicate process; it takes a while to put a soul under, and takes even longer to thaw a brain out. Your memories will return in time, only when they do, part of them will remember that you've turned yourself into a drunken shit-head. Are those the memory's you want to recall the last seconds you review of your life?"

She gave him a few seconds to ponder the idea.

"My name is Courtney by the way."

Courtney, her point was valid. Wash lowered his head.

"Courtney, no I don't want to remember myself as such," he answered.

END PART 3


End file.
